best of the year (so far) + pharrell's goblin mode anthem
Ibibo Sound Machine! Grace Ives! rRoxymore! Sam Gendel! D4L!!!!
According to the content machine, we’re halfway through the year, which of course means it’s time to look back on the best of the year so far with lists on lists on lists.
In that spirit, I’ve been collecting my best of the best (so far) here! A few of my favorite musical moments so far include DJ Koze’s nostalgic-yet-futuristic remix of Peggy Gou, Margaret Glaspy’s voice memo demo awash in a string arrangement, and Cola’s concrete flavored ice cream. Congrats, you are even more Unskippable than the rest.
Maybe new music still isn’t your thing? Well, you’re more on-trend than I am.
But hey! You also made it through the year. I hope you’ve done something new and weird, or finally got to that one task you’ve been putting off since January.
Either way, this week’s Good Links are for you:
A journey into Journey In Satchidananda - Marcus J. Moore goes deep on the 1971 Alice Coltrane classic. No, there are no bumper sticker jokes.
He can be your chaperone at the halfway house - Former Beck bassist and producer Justin Meldal-Johnson talks about how Beck’s band came together, and the very cool process behind Mutations, Midnite Vultures, and Sea Change.
Meticulous V*bes - NYC man-about-town Kareem Rahma hopped on Throwing Fits, and premieres a new rap collab produced by none other than yours truly!
Nonstop City Pop - This 45 minute City Pop mix from My Analog Journal is an extremely meticulous vibe
And now, on to this week’s tracks - as always, you can follow along on our playlist on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter.
UNSKIPPABLES #40
rRoxymore - I Wanted More
French producer rRoxymore’s latest EP I Wanted More, and first for Aus Music, is a mix of downtempo and gentle house that share a searching, exploratory spirit across its four tracks. On the title track, a sharp kick/snare groove pushes against loping marimbas and chopped, pleading vocals. The EP’s warmth and generous melodicism had me coming back to it over the last two weeks, but I’d love to hear “I Wanted More” in a club, especially for the rare four-on-the-floor breaks toward the end of the song.
Grace Ives - Loose
Grace Ives’ latest LP Janky Star is a stunning showcase of casual brilliance, combining the blunt intimacy of Mica Levi with a light, R&B-inflected sense of rhythm and melody over obscenely hook-dense songs that make major label pop records sound positively threadbare. The album’s simple instrumentation leaves Grace’s incredible writing at the forefront - there’s rarely more than bone-dry drum machines and a few simple synth lines - and I honestly had a really hard time picking a track for the week because the album is back-to-front wonderful. The urgent, shimmying “Loose” is an early standout, but all of Janky Star is a must-listen for the week.
Ibibio Sound Machine - All That You Want (Joe Goddard Remix)
Joe Goddard’s hot hand continues with a remix of Ibibio Sound Machine’s “All That You Want” - perhaps it helps that Goddard helped produce their latest album, but his pulsing, meat-and-potatoes rework of the track pushes the song’s vocal into a desperate, bruising dancefloor workout. The track’s heart is the Detroit-leaning bass and a perfectly timed, open-hearted piano break, but the star is Eno Williams’ pleading vocal, which is just as believable over a punishing acid pulse as it is over her band’s original loose groove.
Sam Gendel - Gu Shi
Sam Gendel continues to be one of the most interesting musicians in Los Angeles, if only due to the sheer volume of his output. His latest 34-song record SUPERSTORE is zero attention-span floating lo-fi jazz with the "first thought best thought” OCD creative energy of Guided By Voices. Nothing overstays its welcome, as every track prizes freshness over compositional depth, making the album a funhouse soundbath that’s “jazz” in spirit more than format - even though there’s a surprising cover of “Blue In Green” that’s shocking in how formal it sounds next to Gendel’s charming workbook of originals.
Pharrell ft. 21 Savage and Tyler, the Creator - Cash In Cash Out
This album is a show of brute-force writing; Pharrell’s beat is pure distorted goblin mode cross-rhythm, and both 21 and Tyler understand the assignment to bring chaos on the beat. Tyler in particular seems to find joy in reverting to his most aggressive flows, and maybe the hook is a little thrown off, but it’s worth it for non sequitur lines like “MY BODYGUARD LOOKS LIKE A HORSE” or Tyler falsetto singing “TALKING HUNDRED MILLION BABY!!” over the rare break from the song’s unrelenting bass.
THROWBACK CORNER
D4L - Scotty
Perhaps you, like me, had really strong feelings about the ill-advised Rolling Stone 202 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time list. If so - SSENSE editor/Complex vet Ross Scarano talking to Charles Holmes on RS’ prestige trainwreck on the Ringer Music Show is for you. In addition to noting huge list misses (no FLOCKAVELI??), they mention this excellent 2005 D4L ode to crack while talking about the missing non-prestige story of Southern rap — the song was new to me, and definitely will make your day better.
And that’s all for this week, folks! Please subscribe if you’d like these opinions straight in your inbox. See you next week!